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GIS, or geographic information systems, is a form of mapping Bridgeport has used to keep track of city utilities. However, Engineering Technician Tim Bumgardner has taken the mapping a step further and created an interactive mapping system all residents can now use.
"It's a website you can go to that has a bunch of interactive web applications such as floodplain mapping," said Bumgardner. "There is zoning information and incentive zones so businesses can come in and look to see how they can qualify for an incentive."
Residents can use the maps to find where Bridgeport's city limits are, if where they want to build is within a floodplain, and the newest addition: where their polling place is.
Read full story at WDTV…
first published week of: 02/11/2019
FEMA's flood maps may not accurately reflect the real risk for millions of Americans.
It’s dusk in Charleston, South Carolina, and Sharai Lewis-Gruss slides on waders and sloshes into a deep puddle on the side of the road.
“Let’s move in,” she yells.
She’s a cartographer, usually in front of her computer. But tonight, she uses a yardstick and a tablet for her work: improving flood maps. To her left, marsh grass and the sea, and to her right, the city’s stately colonial mansions.
“It feels really squishy at the bottom over here … must be some sediment is being pushed up from the water,” Lewis-Gruss suggesed.
Lewis-Gruss flew in from New York just to measure these puddles, because she knew there would be a king tide that night — one of the highest tides of the year. The whole bay is rising while water fills the neighborhood.
“So in this spot, sticking my ruler in right next to the storm drain opening and it’s already at 11 centimeters,” she said.
Read full story at Marketplace…
first published week of: 10/14/2019
The combined potential of computing power and cloud are changing how companies deliver their solutions and are impacting how end users do their work. The benefits of the expanded computing capability of the cloud are compelling. Users can easily leverage massive cloud computing resources and can share their data that boost organizational productivity. Along with this, geospatial capabilities deployed in the cloud environment have created a new architecture and scale for geospatial applications. Geospatial cloud platforms and geographic information systems (GIS) software offer enterprises the ability to analyze storehouses of information.
Geospatial cloud empowers people to do complex analysis on easy-to-understand smart maps, rather than giving tables, charts, and spreadsheets. This digital map allows users to visualize significant trends across business and act in mission-focused projects.
Read full story at CIOReview…
first published week of: 04/01/2019
We are pleased to announce that we have acquired one of our leading partners, Geographica. The team joins us with more than 12 years of experience in the geospatial consulting industry, having already built successful solutions for joint clients such as Mastercard, Vodafone, and Telefonica.
Here at CARTO we strive to enable our customers to solve spatial problems with the best data and analysis. Part of that enablement promise means building a strong in-house professional services team to best support our clients. Combining forces with Geographica will not only strengthen our client offering, but also our partner network.
According to industry analysts, professional services account for approximately 50% of all business in geospatial, with another 25% being software and 25% location data. However, identifying cutting-edge, customer-centric providers of such consulting services still remains a challenge.
Read full story at CARTO…
first published week of: 06/03/2019
Thousands of mountaineers have conquered Everest. But how many have climbed into the thermosphere to summit a peak of raw, incandescent light?
Alpinists wishing to challenge the laws of physics will find a wonderfully illustrative road map in Jacob Wasilkowski's “Earth at Night, Mountains of Light.”
The St. Louis-based geospatial Web developer, who will show his creation in early March at the Esri Developer Summit in Palm Springs, Calif., has taken the brightest spots on the planet at night and transformed them into luminous, towering structures.
Cities loaded with street and building lights stretch like radiant citadels as “high” as 53 miles. Poorer-lit regions, including normally imposing mountain ranges, look as flat as the ocean floor.
Why did Wasilkowski create this warped planet?
“Perhaps it was an underlying thought to get people thinking about the effects of our urbanized areas on our nighttime environments,” says the cartographer, who along with fellow mapping whiz Sarah Bell runs the geoviz site Petrichor Studio.
Read full story at Washington Post…
first published week of: 06/17/2019
FGDC Executive Director Ivan DeLoatch on the changing role of the Federal Geographic Data Committee
With the passing of the Geospatial Data Act (GDA) in October 2018, the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) will have a new reporting line. Organized under the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and chaired by the Secretary of the Interior, the committee will now also report biannually to Congress.
FGDC Executive Director Ivan DeLoatch welcomes the interaction with the legislative branch. Even as the FGDC combs through the GDA to further understand what its purview will be, certain aspects of the committee’s mission—managing federal geospatial resources—will remain the same.
How does the GDA affect the FGDC’s mission?
For two decades, various administrations have seen the value of what we do, and now the legislative branch does as well. State and local governments have communicated their needs to Congress, but because of the way our committee was structured legally under the executive branch, we could not always communicate directly with those bodies.
The FGDC has the foundation in place to accelerate the pace of current initiatives, and the GDA represents an opportunity to demonstrate how those resources were invested and to identify where more resources are needed to advance the National Spatial Data Infrastructure. Our stakeholders recognize that we have certain resources to implement our plans for infrastructure, but that we are operating in a challenging business environment. The FGDC wants to ensure the programs it oversees can overcome certain barriers to efficiency.
Read full story at Trajectory Magazine…
first published week of: 03/04/2019